another perfectly good motorcycle ruined.......

Sunday, 2 October 2011

saturday afternoon see's me skinning out on the beemer to darley-moor to catch the late afternoon practice sessions, eight miles out and i'm approaching weston underwood, this is a great bit of road, past kedleston hall and a series of left-right-left, off -camber bends, roll it off for the junction on the left and then flatout between the hedges left, left, left, right, brake and i never get this left-hander right, either too fast in or too slow, frontend goes light over the sharp crest, left and right handers then hard on the brakes for the thirty limit, there's a nissan micra in front, drop down two gears, got to get past before the climb out of weston to get a good run at the next piece of road as i head towards hulland ward and ashbourne, road's clear, gun it and, bastard, the motor dies, feels like a diaphragm's ripped, i pull over into the next lay-by, mr micra cruises past, smug look on his face, drop the float bowl, loads of debris in there, flush it through and take the top off the right hand carb using my trusty leatherman, diaphragm looks ok, i reckon i've dropped a valve then, don't fancy hanging about for the rac man so press the button, bloody hell, it start's, i make my way home, a 325cc single cylinder, every now and again the motor kick's onto two cylinders, coughs and blows a load of thick black smoke from the right hand pot, i park it up in the shed and walk the dog's, sunday and i dig the sporty out of the shed, put the new tax disc in the holder and head up to kev's for his end of season show, he's a jammy bugger, he alway's has great weather and today is no different, it's a lovely day, warm and sunny, meet up with barse and gordy, cup of tea and i need to get away from the harley owner's as soon as possible, weekend warrior's, i can't be rocking the hog patches, trikes and bolt-on attitudes, skin out to chesterfield, make my way over to darley-moor, as i walk around the paddock and clock the attitudes and motorhomes, the tyre-warmers and works factory set-up's and realise i don't belong here either, i try and find something interesting to photograph but instead put my camera away and head home, glass of wine, de-la-soul on the i-pod and i start to strip the beemer, summer's gone, hello autumn.....